This invention relates to an apparatus for inducing the departure of animals from the engine compartment and from about the engine compartment of automotive vehicles. This invention additionally relates to an associated method for scaring or chasing animals from automotive vehicles, particularly parked vehicles. The invention has the purpose and effect of preventing animals such as rodents from damaging automobile components. The invention also serves to prevent animals from being injured by an automobile in certain cases.
The sheltered warmth of an automobile engine compartment can be enticing to small animals seeking refuge against cold, rain, wind, or snow. The warm block of engine metal retains its heat for hours after a car has been driven, and the complex topography of the engine offers a variety of nesting places for a rodent. When the engine is started, the rodent may be injured or even killed. A rotting carcass in the engine compartment can introduce an unpleasant odor in the passenger compartment. Moreover, the car itself can suffer the wear of fine and powerful rodent incisors, nipping on wires and hoses crucial to the operation and safety of the vehicle.
Numerous schemes have been devised to divert unwanted pests from man's territory. In one technique, a generator of ultrasonic energy waves is provided in the home. The vibrations, silent to humans but painfully shrill to rodents, humanely force the flight of the pests. Nevertheless, an animal chased from a house is an animal more likely to seek refuge within a parked vehicle.
Little has been done to avert the damaging consequences of the incompatibility of cars and rodents. For those who care about the lives of the smallest of mammals, or who would not wish to find themselves stranded in an automobile incapacitated by the nighttime gnawing of resident rodents, a need exists to protect cars from rodents and rodents from cars.